2010 the year that was !!!

2010 ... is behind now, but not it's memories. That year I was a witness to some of the most astonishing incidents of my life. Enormous losses, dealt with a diverse breed of people - rude, selfish to kind and giving.

Lost a close friend… a highly ambitious person. In this desire to venture & adventure he was washed away by a rapid called 'life'. Bad memories hurt, haunt and are the heaviest to carry.

The year also acquainted me with wrong associations for people. Lot of loss, incredible learning an a nauseating heartburn.  

Losing faith on people you trust and respected most, I think, has made me wiser.

I have let it go.

Fresh opportunities, new set of wrinkles & zero fat will come in my life in 2011.  I have wonderful folks in my tribe, petite in packaging… who love, yell, demand and pep me. I love them loads.

I wish to do a road journey to Leh, use my car as my stay in, to add the fun factor and also to lower my travel budget. It will also be a test my survival skills.

May the New Year bring a lot of happiness and astuteness to all !!!

Our Saturday Tea & Chatathalon...

... Saturday, around 5:30 pm,  I was driving and Jagjit Singh ushering his best of the best... track change... and my favourite gazal began... "huzoor aapka bhi ehteram kartaa chalun, idhar se guzraa thaa soocha salaam karta chalun"...

Few thoughts ran through my mind & I made a left and headed to Aarti's house. The last week's tea invitation SMS was still seated in my inbox. I thought, let me call, just dropping in without informing will look impolite.

"Hi, this is Nitin". "Hey.. no need to identify yourself, I have your number stored, Kaise yaad kiya?"  the voice has a visible sparkle and delight. "umm.. actually...I am in the parking area of your apartment, is it a good time to drop in?", I murmured. "Ofcourse yaar, ye bhi koi poochne ki baat hai, aur haan... apnee chai is overdue for over a week now." she giggled. I smiled too and proceeded to the elevator.

Before I could reach out the bell.... a gorgeous lady opened the door at 100 miles an hour, the gust of wind blew her well styled hair, a big hug and a even bigger Hi (i could not count the i's this time) followed. All this happened in a whirlwind, giving me no time to react. Come on in... It was Aarti... in her non-messy best... :) 

The interior was fabulous, off white walls, with chestnut brown furniture...that's my favorite too!! I sunk myself in sofa and looked around to have a feel of the house and also looking for other probable occupants. "Pehle chai bana ke laati huun, fir dher saari baatey karenge". Chai was awesome; had to be; a gorgeous lady had made it. "achhi hai?", "perfect" said I. "Let's sit on the jhoola in my balcony, its raining, maaza aayega"... I followed her to the balcony.


In the due course of our interaction, we discovered many common interests, travel, photography, reading, eating etc etc... but love for Gazal gelled us most. Mehndi Hassan to Ghulam Ali to Jagjit Singh to Hariharan, we knew almost all their recitals by heart.

As we sipped tea, she said...

"Wo toh Baarish ki boondain dekh kar khush hota hai,  
Usko kya maloom ke har gir-ney wala qatraa Paani nahi hota …"


"Aa gayi thee ik din tanhaye bhi jazbaat mein
aank say bhi chand boondein gir padi barsaat mein."

was my answer...

... and this continued for an hour. 

We chatted for almost 3 hours, on everything. She was a great company, a great Human being, I found a good friend in her.

"Its 9, I must leave now". "Oh shuks... 3 ghante beet gaye, pataa hi nahi chala." "I know".

... she led me to the front door, I swung my had for a shake, but she hugged me instead. "Doosti dil se hooti hai fir haat kyun milana?" aaur haan, aglee baar parking may aake call mat karna, sidhe ghar aa jana, khana khayenge." "yes, sure". I hugged her back and walked to my Car.

Wonderful soul, wonderful heart making her a wonderful person.....

Lunch is scheduled this Saturday....

... i got a call from my sons school that the bus has stuck at some place and I will have make own arrangements to drop him l!!!

i got ready, ran down the staircase from 5th floor and zoomed to his school. The overnight rain had played its part well... major roads leading to school were waterlogged. I some how managed to be there on time. It was chaos, as all parents were there to see their wards off... on way back i took another route.

...driving for a few 100 meters there was a long lane, full of water, children playing and splashing. I could guess that water was deep, if I am careless, i will be stuck... ruining the interiors & engine as well... i stopped and thought what to do... suddenly a lady zoomed past, slashing water in my (closed) window and tried a 100 meter dash through the puddle... 20 meters in... the vehicle, a Santro, gave way and stopped right in the middle... i could see the helpless lady having no clue at all... i murmured a few 'gaalis' and waited...

... then I saw her looking back and waiving to help her !!! I took of my shoes... and came out to help her... good that I was in my shorts... I managed to wade way through knee deep water and reached her. Water had entered the car floor, she was scared... saying, 'shit !! what if it does not start?'.. Don't worry...dis-engage it to neutral and come out... we will push it to safety. "Its another 80 meters!!" she said. "yeah... we do it together... please come out", i said...

By now the lady was shade better, looked more composed. Pushing a dead car, in water was one herculean task... a few kids helped me.. though their contribution was almost negligible...

Scene II

... two days later... I got a call from an unknown cell number... hello... is that Nitin? Yes it is...! Hello... how are you?  WHO are you? .. sorry, I didn't recognize you !!! It was a lady in the other side !! Its me Aarti... didn't you recognize my voice? "Nope!!!... I think I am listening to you first time !! Do we know each other?" Well... you helped me pull out my car the other day!!! Ohhh.. yeah.. i remember now!!! I am good, how are you... how do you have my number? Well... i got it from the school records, I searched it from your car number!!! I just wanted to thank you... you know... I was so scared, in a hurry and all drenched and messed up the other day... that I just zoomed home. I was puzzled... she noted down the car number... nice lady, courteous enough to take the pain and calling back to thank an unkown. As every gentleman, I too said... no problem... if not me, someone else would have... everything was well in the conversation till this point... the lady answered... "No... actually... I am glad that it was you who helped me in distress!!!!!!!!!!!"  I though, the lady was too generous and wanting me to thank from the bottom of her heart... i just laughed and said.. you take care... bye! and hung up...  

Scene III

.. another call... ummm hiiii... the number if i's here... were more that required :) ... what are you doing ? Nothing... in fact.. going to a friends' place... and then we would head for a chai somewhere. Oh.. wow... I make real good tea you know! why don't you drop in... it will be great. You can have chai & see my place as well. I paused for a few seconds... my gray cell working full capacity. What to answer... yes or no?  "ummm some other time... won't be possible today"... I could guess she was a bit upset... "Ohh.. that's okay."  and in next few minutes her address beeped on my cellphone... scaring me this time !!!

Scene IV

... her last call (the latest) was on Sunday evening.... I was off to receive my cousin from Indore... she said... 'Happy Friendship Day'.... I reciprocated the sentiments. ... "I guess.. you got me wrong... I am not trying to invade your life... all I wanted to say was I just saw a great friend in you... like people have love at first sight... i had a similar .. 'friend at first sight'  kind off feeling !! I... am... sorry if I have bothered you in last few weeks... please do not misunderstand me please... you have my address... if you like... do drop in some day... bye ... take care.... i love you !! happy friendship day.. again"... She hung up not giving me a chance to clarify... I had nothing to say... I actually had misunderstood her approach... She tried to make it simple... be friends... lead separate lives... grow up... stay connected !!! I declared myself a 'desi.com'... who thought and thought and made simple thing complicated....

Shitttt !!!! I was so wrong... I felt like kicking the butt of my 6th sense... it deceived me.... I was feeling soooo ashamed and my power to think vanished for a few minutes !!! 

I may see her this weekend... not sure... still confused !!

 

Chocolate Cup Cake

.. this is probably the quickest recipe for Chocolate Cake !!! 5 minutes flat and behold, the cake is ready. Here is how :

All you need:

• Coffee Mug - 1 (microwavable)
• Flour - 4 table spoons
• Powder Sugar - table spoons
• Baking Cocoa powder - 2 table spoons
• Egg - 1
• Milk - 3 table spoons
• Oil - 3 table spoons
• Cadbury's dairy milk chocolate - 1 bar broken into crude pieces
• Vanilla essence - a dash, one dhakkan :)

Trick:

• Mix all dry ingredients in a mug, break the egg in it.
• Add milk, then oil and mix well for a few seconds
• Drop in chocolate pieces (chips) and vanilla 
• Mix this mixture vigorously
• Put the Cup / Mug in Microwave on 'High' for 3 minutes
• On later part the cake may seem to overflow, but it will settle down soon, not to worry
• Let it cool 
• EAT !!! it serves 2 average eaters.

PS - for non egg eaters, use half cup if Thumps Up instead, it works well. 

Try it and let me know !! Believe me, this is one dangerous recipe, as we all just a few minutes away from 'Chocolate Cake'... anytime :)  

lothal@this-sunday.com

.. I had realized on Saturday that Sunday was going to be same old story, getting up, breakfast, TV, heavy lunch, a 4 hour afternoon siesta, lazy evening, dinner at a place chosen by others, sleep again..

This is no life for me, so I started for Lothal, 80 km from Ahmedabad. On way, I filled up my coffee flask for the 1.5 hour journey. Made some sandwiches, as my Sahil also tagged along. Road after Changodar was awesome, we soon arrived at 'Gallops' for a nice chai, halted for a while, took a left and drove 40 odd kms on Bhavnagar highway.

Dad & Sonny have great chemistry!! he enjoyed every moment of the drive, I enjoyed seeing him enjoy. He is turning out to be a perfect future traveler. Along with him, he brought a pair binoculars, drawing book, charcoal pencils, and his favorite Lays - American style Cream n Onion packets. He sipped 'Appy Fizz' in between and smiled at me occasionally saying, "this is life daddy". I smiled... and said "yeah baby, enjoy...".

Overcast sky greeted us with an occasional shower, rain started pouring prity heavy as we neared Lothal. I would have missed the sharp left for Lothal, had not my baby shouted.. 'daddy yaar, left le, left le.. tu kidhar jaa raha hai", he is a  perfect navigator :) 

The 7 km inroad was through semi-arid plains, rain created a wonderful sight. We finally touched Lothal at 11:35.

As we read the board, we got to know that it was excavated between 1955 & 60. and was the southern most outpost of Indus valley civilization, dating to 2300 BC !! and was one of the most unique lock gate dockyard... perhaps the greatest maritime architecture from ancient world. Standing here and one can feel the hustle-bustle this port town must have had ages ago.

Lothal means - the mound of dead. A massive flood destroyed this township in 2350 BC. In the remains you can see the foundations of the dockyard, the granary, paved roads, and an amazing drainage system to take care of storm water. A mud brick wharf helped in cargo movement. The jewelery and other artifacts recovered during the excavation as kept in the nearby museum.

A must visit place for all. It can be done in a day. Gujarat Tourism has a cafeteria here, but not up to the mark.

As i conclude, I remember a nice quote by Robert Louis Stevenson.

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”

Day ended with a gripping finals between Span & the Netherlands.... Spain won .. woohuuuu !!!

Overall... a perfect day :)  Next Sunday... it will be Sun Temple at Modhera.

...my first stay in a 5 Star Hotel...

This summer, while in Bangkok… we checked in a 5 star property of ‘The Radissons’. It was a very-very plush hotel, huge lobby, super huge overhang, everything was huge. We soon neared our allotted room; as I opened the keyless door of the hotel room, my son smiled at me giving that distinct - daddy-knows-everything look…

  

This reminded me of a few incidences which happened with me when I stayed in a 5 star hotel for the first time …

As every middle class family, most family vacations were in comfortable, logically priced hotels i.e. lesser number of zeroes in the room tariff, items on menu restricted to two digits.

…some years back, I had one memorable stay in one of the upscale hotels in Mumbai. This was the first time I actually got to see the inside of a 5 star hotel.I was there for induction in my newly joined organization...

I still recollect seeing wall-to-wall carpets; fountains at places where I could never imagine, amazing light effect, largest ever bouquets in the lobby. My colleague questioned, “itna bada bouquet dekha hai kabhi?”, I said, “bouquet???, isme lage huay phool bhi kahbi nahi dekhe.”

The room had more never-used-before things waiting to welcome me. The pillows were so soft they nearly suffocated. The accidentally discovered mini-fridge, had such brands stuffed in it that if I spoke the label names aloud, people would think I am French…

.

The large King sized bed and glass-walled, see-through shower cabinet (James Bond types) puzzled me more than impressing.

…dinner was brilliant bland… as I decided to hit the bed a problem arose…the sheet was tucked soooo tightly that it refused to pull out. As I tried harder the scene changed into WWF match between me and my bedding...

Next morning, as I opened the bathroom door, the sweet freshener smell reminded me that I am stay put in a 5 star!!! As I surveyed the ‘my-flats-bedroom-sized-bathroom’, I realized the absence of a fundamental element –‘bucket’. I dialed 202, the voice on the other exclaimed… “You need a bucket sir?”, “Haan Ji and send a mug too!” The pause was much longer this time.

It was only later that I realized why the person was so hesitant. There bathroom had no tap !! :)

To start the water flow from the shower...I started patting the wall panel, expecting to make a accidental discovery of a hidden mechanism, but all efforts in vain. It will be embarrassing for me to tell you, how I managed to wash the undergarments… made them hang on the showerhead, 90 degree of hot water, in full force aiming at the clothes... that was one hell of a hi-speed hot wash...

Other historic stumble upon were – a look at the laundry rates, cost of washing and ironing was more than the cost price of the undergarment to be washed. TV took an hour to beam images, as I hunted for the power switch only later to realize that it is operational by ‘remote’ only … while getting down the elevator, I made faces looking at the mirror on the back panel, without knowing that its one-sided and people in the lobby are watching me do the act…

I compensated all these miseries by deciding to walk off with a few of those cute little bottles of bath gel and shampoos etc.… no complain!!!

A Dream Drive...

Come monsoon… and the very thought of rainfall makes us nostalgic. dark clouds, intermittent showers, green foliage, spick and span black roads, hazy vision, cold weather, smell of soil in the air, earth seems dancing to monsoon tunes…

It was (still is) raining cats and dogs. By 1700 it became gloomy, as I watched out of my office window it started raining heavily. Again, I am the kind of person who wants to get drenched in every rain.

I do enjoy getting soaked in the first showers, just to welcome rains (and to thank god for giving us the much needed respite) … enjoy the rest of the season from the clean-dry surroundings of my office / home :-). Never did I think that I would enjoy the rain driving alone in a car.


Enter my dream possession... a 4x4, MHawk engine, 2.2 liter, Black SCORPIO diesel, this beast changed it all. As I was watching out of my office space, each drop of water hitting the pane was inviting me, challenging me rather… “come out and race with us”. Looking at the torrential rains I could not resist the urge to drive. I crossed my legs, leaned back, I saw my NIKEs’ yelling at me - ‘Just Do It’. I dumped my lappy, stuffed other paraphernalia and left office.


I never dared driving in rain in my old Alto. I must say that, my trusted Maruti, never ditched me midway…never. I always reached home / office early for the fear of breakdown…as low BHP, less torque and ground clearance, smaller wheels etc. made me drive it with extreme caution. But it was very-very reliable and I respect Maruti a lot.

Anyway back to my (yet to arrive) SCORPIO...


So got myself strapped in the ‘cockpit’, ignition – check, auto headlights - check, auto wiper - check, defogger - check, fog lights - check, iPod with gazals - checked. I was all geared for the wet combat.


...visibility was poor, a few hundred feet may be, streams and growing puddles of water everywhere, potholes camouflaged underneath. Traffic was off-road, small cars were driving slow... almost at halt with their fog lights on… I smiled as I remembered my time during ‘Alto’ days. Trucks were crawling on left. Bikers took shelter where ever they could. And there I was in my mean-machine, feeling safe like in a cocoon.

All the while the auto wipers were doing their task well - never had to bother changing the speed – they had rain frequency sensors ;). Defogger kept the windscreens clear. Bridgestone Desert Dueler 604V provided that mind blowing grip... Desert duelers were being soaked in rains...they were not complaining.

Once on clear highway, I pressed the paddle and touched 80 KMPH as I wanted enjoy the drive and did not want to finish my drive soon, but my exit came in 5 km. The feeling was so electrifying that decided to drive further along the 4 lane. Another 30 km on the highway, took a ‘U’ turn, and made another 30. I felt I was part of the ‘Highway Patrol’.


Every puddle whizzed past… effortlessly. With an amazing ground clearance of SCORP , today I was hunting down puddles… tackling them head-on rather than steer clear of them…without fearing about water getting in the hood or bottom hitting the road surface.

With ABS light winking at me... reassuring their capability of stopping the beast at short notice.

The performance was numero uno...I was overtaking the fancier breeds like  VDIs’ LXIs’, VGT’s etc. and occasional 350i and A4… in rains they all seemed toys… dwarfed!!!  Clear patch gave a strong urge to hit the magical number of 100 kmph, but I decided not to... else my dream run would end earlier ;)


Eventually the 5 km drive back home turned into 70 km of sheer pleasure.

Mission accomplished, the SCORP had landed. As I end, I remember a quote - 

"There is no replacement for displacement" - Wolfgang Bernhard, Chief Operating Officer, Chrysler Group

…I want to do this really when I own a Scorpio some day !!! and I will take you all along !!.. until then...enjoy monsoon, drive safe...